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VISION

Just like Johann Sebastian Bach before him, Ludwig van Beethoven played a significant role in the development of the cello. His five Sonatas for cello and piano, three cycles of Variations and the Triple Concerto all enhanced the instrument's expressive scope to an extent that has not been surpassed to date. With his unparalleled ability to endow the instrument with highly lyrical and elegantly cantabile qualities, he blazed the trail for composers who would follow him.
Therefore, in what way and to what extent did Beethoven's last Sonata, the fully composed and visionary op. 102/2, influence Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss, two composers with such very different and idiosyncratic styles?

FUGATO

This collection takes listeners on a journey through German Romantic music, giving due prominence to the strength of tradition, the power of originality, and the driving force of innovation.
In his final Sonata for cello and piano, Beethoven completely disrupts the genre, appearing to speak to future generations. Indeed, when he saw the incomprehension with which his contemporaries greeted the work, his response was: « Eventually, they’ll understand ». The experience of the four preceding Sonatas would have been needed in order for the fifth one, which has a rare density, to achieve the perfect balance between the two instruments and allow the cello to develop its expressive capabilities. This fifth Sonata ends with a majestic, visionary fugue which went on to inspire future generations.
While Beethoven was looking to the future, Brahms liked to turn towards maestros gone by. He greatly admired Bach and Beethoven, whose legacies were for him an enormous source of inspiration. A good example of this is his Sonata in E minor, with its central movement was inspired by the minuet – a musical form from the past. Furthermore, its finale contains a fugue every bit as imposing as that of Beethoven's opus 102/2. Despite elements clearly borrowed from the past, Brahms showed his originality by stylising these earlier forms and adding his own personal touches.
Strauss grew up in adoration of Beethoven and Brahms, and the influence of these two maestros was evident when he composed his Sonata for Cello and Piano, particularly in the numerous fugue-style sections which punctuate the work's three movements and give it a slightly conservative character. However, this overlooks the many lyrical flourishes that herald the arrival of the mature Strauss. Despite his very young age and devoted admiration for Beethoven and Brahms, Strauss had already found his path: one that would lead him to the originality and modernity of Elektra before bringing him back to more conservative pastures.

ESTELLE REVAZ & FRANCOIS KILLIAN

Estelle Revaz and François Killian became acquainted in Switzerland in 2011 and since then have developed a close musical relationship in which they share a mutual view of the various German and French schools of musical interpretation. The FUGATO project allows both musicians to intensify an artistic exchange of the key repertoire for their respective instruments without losing their love of music-making, a mutual enjoyment which can only be upheld when artists are willing to enter into close musical relationships and to constantly be open to new material.

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FRANCOIS KILLIAN

François Killian has won prizes at many of the most famous international music competitions, including the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, and the Piano Masters of Monte Carlo. In 1981 François Killian won the ARD Music Competition in Munich.
François Killian has performed with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, the State Philharmonic of the Rhineland Palatinate, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrücken, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Kraców Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of famous conductors such as Emmanuel Krivine, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Theodor Guschlbauer, Grzegorz Nowak and Radoslav Szulc.
He regularly performs in concert in famous venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Düsseldorf Tonhalle, the Bausaal in Essen, London's Wigmore Hall, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Salle Gaveau à Paris with musical partners such as Natalie Dessay, Nobuko Imai, Gustav Rivinius, Philippe Bernold and Jacques Zoon.
François Killian has made a name for himself as an acknowledged interpreter of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt and Ravel, as well as of works such as Babar by Poulenc, Kakteen by Paul Juon and Rain tree sketch by Toru Takemitsu.
François Killian's discography comprises many albums that reflect his continual work as a soloist and chamber musician. They have all been enthusiastically reviewed by the music press.
Born in Paris, François Killian studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse in Paris in Ventsislav Yankoff's class. He went on to perfect his skills at the College of Music in Hanover with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling.

"With a full sound, phrasing that is generous but precise and well-structured tempos, cellist Estelle Revaz reiterates on her third album the surprising musical maturity that makes her one of the rising stars of a new generation of great artists. This double- quick duo performance looks set to be a hit!"


"Listen to her. Her performance is alive, committed, lyrical and fresh. Look at her. Her face is an open book of emotion, sincerity, sensitivity and intelligence."

“The cello is singing magnificently, at times powerful or languid… Especially romantic in this new album of the Swiss musician Estelle Revaz where it is generously showcased by the piano of Francois Killian. It is a regal program where every component brightly emphasizes the principle of the fugue."


"Brahms and Strauss, under Estelle Revaz’ bow become lighter, risks some “ pirouettes” without ever renouncing their melancholic strains. Estelle Revaz is simply a dream cello personified!"


"After Cantique in 2015 and Bach & Friends in 2017, Estelle Revaz shows again her eminent qualities of interpreter in Fugato, her third album newly released and devoted to three Sonatas for cello and piano by Beethoven, Brahms and Richard Strauss. The cellist benefits from the exemplary accompaniment of Francois Killian, a pianist whose sound palette is as extensive as it is varied. He also excels in bringing out the grand lines of the text , while taking great care of playing every minute detail of the partition.
There is a marvelous complicity between the two protagonists in the Beethoven Opus 102/2 as they play with an ample breath and perfectly united. Estelle Revaz gives to the score and intense and quivering lyricism all the while having at her disposal a vast assortment of nuances all the way until the contrapuntal development of the Allegro Fugato which ends the piece.
In the Brahms Sonata No.1 Opus 38, the cellist deploys a play full of feline flexibility, an inexhaustible variety of colors and atmospheres while showing up every single detail of the text. Passing ever so smoothly from shadow to light, she knows how to highlight the changing moods of the score which is sometimes full of melancholic poetry and sometimes vibrant of impetuosity which comprise the final Allegro done in a Fugato style.
Composed by Richard Strauss between his sixteenth and nineteenth year, the Sonata in F Major Opus 6 possesses also a Fugato episode in its central Andante ma non troppo. Joining finesse and vitality, Estelle Revaz and Francois Killian play in one united breath this engaging score integrating its dynamic contrasts with a total conception well balanced and homogeneous. They draw its melodious curves in an odd mixture of rigor and sensitivity, therefore giving a complete justice to the tumultuous eloquence of this youthful oeuvre… while a bit unruly.
This whole disc has been not only judiciously conceived but superbly interpreted."


"Fugato is a third album brimming with finesse: released this spring, it displays a richness of temperament. With her Grancino instrument, Estelle Revaz adds delicate nuances to her rounded playing style without the need for overstatement. Her harmony with pianist François Killian is such that it produces a convincing musical relationship between the two. Their interpretation of these three very well-known sonatas gives them a brand new brilliance. A total success!"


"Estelle Revaz is a cellist who knows how to make her instrument sing and a pianist who knows how to follow her in her outbursts full of melodies ! A new CD you simply cannot do without."


“Dazzling! The Grancino at its most resonant!”


"A wonderful understanding shows through in the interpretation, and in the ability of the pianist to follow the momentum of the cello to perfection."